Québec City, November 14, 2018 – Fifty years ago, on November 14, 1968, Québec established an independent, neutral ombudsman with the passage of the Public Protector Act.
Daniel Johnson, Québec premier from 1966 to 1968, was inspired to create this form of recourse after meeting the ombudspersons from Sweden and New Zealand. After Premier Johnson’s death, Premier Jean-Jacques Bertrand sponsored the bill.
At the time, the bill was a response to the ever-growing weight of public services. The new Act gave rise to an organization tasked to investigate mistakes or abuses by Government of Québec departments or agencies.
Fifty years later, the Protecteur du citoyen sees to it that citizens’ rights are respected by the public service, which has included the health and social services network since 2006. In 2017, it was mandated to oversee the integrity of public bodies by handling disclosures of wrongdoing concerning them.
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Media Relations: Tania-Kim Milot
Phone: (418) 646-7143/Mobile: (418) 925-7994
Email: tania-kim.milot@protecteurducitoyen.qc.ca
